Rick Perry has more success in Arizona and Michigan primaries than in New Hampshire

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has had more success after dropping out of an election than he did when he was running.

Perry decided to discontinue his GOP presidential campaign 41 days ago at a South Carolina Wendy’s restaurant, yet he continues to receive votes in the primaries. (That’s because he already qualified for ballots in state after state — with the well-publicized exception of Virginia.)

In the Michigan primary election yesterday, the Texan also received 1,910 votes cast in his name (0.2 percent of the votes), while Arizona voters cast 1,871 votes (0.4 percent of the votes) for the lost cause of Perry to become the GOP candidate.

This may not seem like many votes compared to the hundreds of thousands other candidates are receiving, but let’s compare it to the last primary where Perry was actually in the race: New Hampshire.

In the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 10, Perry received just 1,766 votes (0.7 percent), which means Perry received 144 more votes in Michigan and 105 more votes in Arizona than he received in New Hampshire, when he was actually running in the race.

This GOP dropout could still be receiving votes for a few reasons:

— Perry supporters refuse to accept the fact that he has dropped out of the race. They are such avid supporters of this candidate that they cannot face the harsh reality in front of them: Perry will not be the next president of the United States.

— Perry supporters refuse to vote for anyone else. Maybe some of them have come to grips with the fact that their candidate of choice is no longer in the running, but in their eyes, none of the other GOP candidates measure up to Perry. Voting for anyone else but Perry just seems wrong. Casting a vote for him seems like a great way to pay tribute to his campaign and what could have been.

— Perry supporters refuse to purchase modern-day technology to be informed of current events. Perhaps they simply don’t know he dropped out of the race. We may have underestimated his Amish supporters. After all, their political opinions will not be represented in the polls, unless pollsters start using smoke signals or a town crier.

— Perry supporters refuse to support anyone who is not a native Texan. This group will stick to their guns as long as the ballots continue to give them the option.

— Perry supporters refuse to look at the ballots as they are voting. Perhaps those who have been supporting him in primaries, post demise, cast their votes for a random candidate on the ballot, like a political Russian Roulette.